1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle sharing system for allowing a plurality of users to share vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, automobiles play an important role as an indispensable means for allowing people to move in and beyond local areas, and the number of automobiles being used keeps growing. The increasing number of automobiles being used not only causes serious traffic jams, but also demands more and more parking spaces. For example, medium-size cities in the outskirts of larger cities need parking spaces near stations for automobiles that are used by people who take commuter trains. However, automobiles in such parking spaces remain parked in the daytime, and are usually driven in and out of the parking lots early morning and evening for taking commuter trains and going home.
In view of such a wasteful way of using automobiles, there has been a demand for a system which allows users to rent automobiles only when necessary. In the presently available automobile rental system, a user fills out an application paper at an automobile rental company to rent an automobile, receives the key of the automobile, uses it for a desired period of time, and finally returns the automobile to the automobile rental company. This automobile rental system allows users to use automobiles only when necessary though the process to apply for the renting of automobiles is somewhat complex.
Efforts are currently being made to develop electric vehicles which are less harmful in terms of air pollution and noise than automobiles which run on fossil fuels such as gasoline, though the electric vehicles are still more expensive than the present automobiles. If electric vehicles can be shared by a plurality of users, then such a sharing system is highly economical and produces other advantages including protection against air pollution and noise.
The applicant has proposed a system in view of the above background (see Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 8-110998). The proposed system uses vehicles which can selectively be manually and automatically driven. A vehicle is automatically driven between a user and a port where the vehicle is to be parked. While the user is on the vehicle, the vehicle is manually driven. The system thus arranged is highly convenient to use, reduces personnel expenses for dispatching and receiving vehicles, and hence is relatively low in cost.
In the proposed system, when a vehicle is to switch from a manual driving mode to an automatic driving mode, the weight of the vehicle is measured by a weight sensor disposed in a position where the vehicle is to be returned, for thereby deciding whether there is an occupant of the vehicle or not. If it is confirmed that there is no occupant, then the vehicle starts to be automatically driven. It is also proposed to capture an image of the driver's seat in the vehicle with a camera to confirm an occupant of the vehicle. According to another proposal, when an occupant of the vehicle presses a start button after getting off the vehicle, the vehicle starts to be automatically driven.
The two former proposals require additional devices including the weight sensor and the camera. The last proposed arrangement is disadvantageous in that the occupant may forget to press the start button or may possibly make an erroneous action.